God So Loved The World

We could say, oh, God so loved the world that He made pretty flowers. God so loved the world that He made beautiful ladies, handsome men. God so loved the world that He made delicious food. God so loved the world that He said nice words. God so loved the world that He made trees and mountains. Well, that’s nice, but it doesn’t. It’s not something missing. God so loved the world that He took a whole bunch of dirty, rotten, vile, God-hating sinners, and died on the cross to bear their sins so that He could bring them into His eternal heaven and fellowship with them forever.

Who? That’s something. That’s better than trees and flowers and pretty ladies. That’s better than anything. You see, what I’m saying is this. Love is best measured in its ability to forgive. See? See, that’s the thing. You see, here’s what He says. It is God’s ability to forgive that tells us His love. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, God made us alive together with Christ. And why? Because of His great mercy, based on His great love with which He loved us. The most magnanimous act that love can ever do is forgive the greatest evil.

Measure your love. Ask yourself, do you love? The children of God love. If you don’t love, 1 John 4 says, you’re not of God. You say, well, how do I know if I don’t love? Just ask yourself a question. Do you have any bitterness against somebody for something they did to you? Do you get angry with people? Does it smolder inside? Do you speak maliciously behind their back? Do you have characteristics of non-love? That’s the old life. And you’ve got to put the old life away, right? That’s gone. See? That’s gone.

Look at the end of verse 32. We are to forgive. And here’s the key to this whole passage, and it’s used twice. Once in verse 32, and once in chapter 5 verse 2. We are to forgive, as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. This thing just jumped off the page and hit me this morning when I was preaching, first service. I’d thought about it, but it never quite crystallized. I don’t know if I can say it like I did then, but you know what I saw? And I think I saw it for the first time this clearly.

Part of the adventure of preaching is you learn as you go, you know? But, you know, I never really thought of it this way. You know, no matter what anybody does to me, this is interesting. No matter what anybody does to me, in the family of believers, in the community of believers, no matter how they hurt me, or harm me, or slander me, or crush me, or bruise me, or wound me, or offend me, or whatever it is, Christ has already paid the penalty for that sin. Did you get that? You say, boy, what they did to me? Oh, I’m going to make them suffer.

Want to know something? You’d better think twice. Christ already suffered for what they did to you. What more do you want? Well, that’s a revolutionary thought. What are you asking out of God? Jesus bore in his own body our sins. If somebody sins against me, and somebody violates me, and somebody offends me, and my reaction in the human flesh would be to be angry, and bitter, and wrathful, and malicious, and slanderous, I stop and think, but wait a minute, I don’t want anything out of them. After all, Jesus already bore that sin in his own body on the tree.

Jesus already spilled his blood for that sin. What am I going to ask? What do I want? What more could there be? So next time you think you ought to have a vengeful attitude, next time you want to lash back at somebody, the next time you want to say an unkind word, or you want to be bitter towards somebody, next time you want to slander somebody, or whisper behind their back, or retaliate, or seek vengeance to somebody, remember that the very sin that they used against you, the very thing they did to you, Jesus already bore in his own body on the cross.

And that sin is paid for, and you don’t have to add any more to the suffering and the consequence that that sin should bring. It’s all been taken by Christ on the cross. It’s already a dealt with thing. So we are to forgive, verse 32 says, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you. You know what God says? You know, you and I offend God a lot. I offend God a lot, and so do you. And God doesn’t say, MacArthur, I’ve taken as much as I can take out of you. That is the last time.

Take that. No, you know what God says? MacArthur, what can I do to you? My son, he already bore the blows. There’s nothing left to do. It’s over. God, for Christ’s sake, forgives you. You, for Christ’s sake, forgive each other. And the measure of your love is the extent of your ability to forgive. It’s a fantastic truth. You say, well, you just can’t go on forgiving forever. The guy does it every day. Yeah, well, you can go on forgiving forever. First John 2 12. My little children, he has forgiven you all your trespasses for his name’s sake.

Colossians 2. He’s forgiven all your sins. It’s fantastic. Ephesians 1, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. If we are the ones confessing our sins, then we are the ones being forgiven and constantly cleansed. First John 1 9, just constantly cleansed. And God looks down at me and he says, you keep sinning, but I can’t do a thing to you because Jesus already took the punishment. And then he says to us, now, that’s the way I want you to walk. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of God so loved the world.

Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].